Am I naïve to think that two-year-old children should be concerned with fingerpainting, “Yo Gabba Gabba”, and discovering shells and seaglass on a beach … and that parents should be encouraging these endeavors?
A recent story out of New Hampshire’s largest city apparently sends a different message.
So Manchester couple Danielle Maxwell and James Currier leave their apartment (with their puppy, I might add) without bringing their toddler, who was found “lying in her own vomit” by police.
Is it wrong, by the way, that all I can hear is Peter Clemenza advising, “Leave the gun, take the cannoli?”
No surprise that “endangering the welfare of a child” has been …
… added to drug charges and receiving stolen property, but, I mean, come on!
Police said they were preparing to execute a search warrant on the couple’s apartment when they saw Maxwell and Currier leave the building, get into a vehicle and drive away. Police said they stopped the vehicle in the area of Notre Dame Avenue and Wayne Street.
“With them, they had a puppy in the vehicle,” said Capt. Kevin Kelly. “At about the same time, members of our tactical team were executing the warrant at that residence, and inside the bedroom of that apartment, they located a 2-year-old girl who was subsequently identified as the child of these two individuals.”
Kelly said the child was in a crib, wearing a soiled diaper and lying in her own vomit. Police said the SWAT team also found about $2,000 worth of heroin and three loaded firearms.
So these scumbags left their kid alone in an apartment with a kill-worthy amount of heroin and loaded guns inside. Freaking brilliant!
Can I just say that my older daughter was able to monkey out of her crib when she was about a year old? I cringe to think of what could have happened if this toddler had jailbreaked and happened upon the loaded weapon “sitting near a computer in the master bedroom”.
Maxwell was arraigned Friday morning, and her bail was set at $40,000. Currier’s bail was set at $100,000.
Police said the Department of Children, Youth and Families was contacted, and the child was placed with family members.
These are the same family members, I assume, that produced Danielle Maxwell and James Currier and steered their courses?
Sorry, that isn’t fair … it’s not like good parents don’t raise the proverbial bad apple from time to time, and there’s certainly something to be said for the redemption factor.
Like any story where a child is needlessly harmed and/or endangered, this just really pisses me off. What kind of person thinks it’s okay to just leave a helpless kid behind with circumstances in place that could turn tragic all too quickly? Blame youth, blame drugs, blame whatever, but it all comes down to this:
A mother named Danielle Maxfield and a father named James Currier put their child in serious danger.
There is no excuse, explanation, or anything else to say.